Tessa Thrasher Hughes is Senior Attorney, Employment & Compliance, at Vulcan Materials Company, a Fortune 1000 publicly-traded construction materials company headquartered in Birmingham, Alabama. A member of the Alabama Bar since 1993, Ms. Hughes practiced general civil defense litigation in Birmingham for five years before honing her practice solely to employment discrimination litigation when she joined Lehr Middlebrooks & Vreeland, an employment defense firm. She was recruited in January 2002 to Vulcan, where she oversees employment litigation; interacts with state and federal employment agencies; advises her internal clients on a national basis on labor and employment law matters; and provides training to employees on a number of topics, including effective pre-supervisor and supervisor training, harassment and discrimination, FMLA, ADAAA, ADEA, and business conduct. She was a founder of Vulcan’s Mentoring Program and is currently serving on its Women’s Leadership Council. In addition, she administers Vulcan’s Business Conduct Program, which ensures compliance with its Code of Ethics, and has daily oversight of Vulcan’s Business Conduct Helpline.